


Big Brother

by itsfaberrytaboo (orphan_account)



Series: Wide Green Eyes [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Age Play, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bigs and littles are known, Bottle-Feeding, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Non-Sexual Age Play, Pacifiers, tantrums
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-08 10:55:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6851842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/itsfaberrytaboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You don’t need another race!” Clint suddenly shouted, and both Natasha and Maria jumped. “You don’t need a race and you don’t need Steve and I want you to play with me right now!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Big Brother

There were, Maria supposed, things stranger than Sam Wilson showing up with Steve to the farm. And there were, she guessed, things in the world a little less explainable than Steve dressed in jeans and a Pokémon tee shirt (when had he even learned about Pokémon?) and wearing a New York baseball cap, with a Chewbacca backpack (she really needed to get herself one of those) and looking for all the world like a ten-year-old boy.

So yeah. There were stranger things. But for the life of her, Maria Hill couldn’t think of any.

It was a grey day, with rain casting down on the roof of the Barton house and sounding like drums at a symphony. It seemed to reflect in everyone’s mood; Tony wasn’t there that weekend, preferring to spend time on his own with Pepper, and Maria couldn’t say she blamed him. She cherished her time with Natasha more than anything, and though it was getting easier to be herself at the farm, it was still nicer to be at home with her little girl in their own space.

Speaking of her little girl, Natasha was curled up on the floor at her feet, playing with a set of small dolls Maria had gotten her a few days earlier. She’d been uncharacteristically quiet, but Maria chalked that up to the fact that Clint was grumpy, and rather acted like he didn’t have time to spare on the redhead, as he guarded his books and Lego. It irritated Maria a little bit, but she knew to leave well enough alone, and besides, she could tell by the slight crease to Laura’s brow that the woman was aware of how her own little was acting.

So Maria kept her mouth shut, content to just reach down every now and then and run her fingers through Natasha’s curls, smiling when the baby would glance at up her and give her a grin. She was adorable in her black bubble outfit with its gathered legs and puffed sleeves, her hair pulled back on the sides with red bows. Surrounding Natasha was what Maria jokingly called her “tools of the trade”: the bunny pacifier, her dolls, her blanket, a bowl of Natasha’s favorite goldfish crackers, and a bottle, half-filled with apple juice. She had everything she needed and, despite Clint’s dark attitude at the moment, Natasha would hum happily to herself as she reached to rub her fingers over her blanket, or pop her pacifier in her mouth for a moment, or take a bit of her crackers and a sip of her juice. She was, Maria thought to herself, a satisfied baby.

And really, what more could she ask for?

The knock at the door sounded like every other one that Maria had heard in horror movies, and so she was startled at first. But when Laura opened the door and revealed a slightly waterlogged Sam, everything faded back to normal, albeit with a little more confusion. Because Sam didn’t know about these weekends. Or so Maria thought.

He knew who was little and who wasn’t, clearly, since he’d come over to the apartment to have playtime with Natasha every now and then. But unlike Steve, he’d never chosen to come to one of the weekends at the farm, even though Maria had asked him, more than once. She wondered what had changed, this weekend.

“Hey,” he said to Laura, with a grin as if he’d always been standing on her doorstep. “Mind if I come in? I brought cake.”

This perked Clint up, and he peered over to the doorway; Natasha just sucked on her pacifier, one doll held in her tightly-fisted hand.

“I’d never say no to cake, but what’s the occasion?” Laura said, standing aside to let Sam in.

He ushered Steve in first, and Maria was surprised to see Sam’s hand lightly gripping the back of Steve’s neck. She would’ve been alarmed at it, someone manhandling Captain America, but Steve and Sam had been dating for a while, and denying it just as long.

They were completely obvious, and completely ridiculous. Sam’s hand on the back of Steve’s neck was gentle, Maria could tell. Designed to guide, not to force.

“Just a thank you for letting us crash here for a bit,” Sam said. Steve only looked at the ground, and Maria could see a blush spreading over his face to his ears. It was a lot like the blush she’d seen a few weekends ago when she’d complimented him on helping her take care of Natasha. He’d seemed so young then—

Oh.

Oh, holy _shit_.

She’d been right, all along.

Maria’s eyes widened, and they met Sam’s, and he knew she got it. He nodded once at her, and she couldn’t explain why, but she glanced at Natasha.

Those baby green eyes knew, too.

They followed Sam’s every move, from him stepping inside the foyer of the farmhouse and handing Laura the (store-bought) cake, to him ushering Steve into the living room. To Steve, all long limbs and awkward man, carrying himself like a shy and strange… little boy. It was absurd, Maria thought, the very idea of ninety-five-or-something Captain America being… a little.

And yet. And yet, it was perfect.

That realization startled her out of her silence.

“Hey, Sam,” she greeted him as Laura went to put the cake in the kitchen. “Glad you could make it.” Not that he’d actually been invited, but, well. She could see that Natasha – and now Clint – was watching Steve, who merely stood next to the couch, close to Sam, as if he didn’t know what to do with himself. He didn’t, Maria was pretty sure.

“Hi, Steve,” she said to him, and when Steve looked at her, she smiled.

She recognized, too, that conflict going on in his eyes. She saw it, frequently, in the little girl who had reached out and tentatively closed a hand around Maria’s ankle. Seeking comfort for a routine that had suddenly changed. Maria stroked her hair again, gently weaving a bouncy strand around her fingers.

“Hi,” was all Steve said.

Laura came back into the room, as casually as she pleased, like Captain America hadn’t just shown up at her house in a little headspace.

“Steve, you want to play?” She asked, and his head shot around to look at her so fast Maria actually winced.

“Play?” he repeated, sounding uncertain. The word seemed foreign to him, almost as if Laura was speaking a language he’d never heard before.

“Yeah, big man,” Sam said, giving him a little push with his hand. “You can play if you want. Don’t forget the toys in your bag.”

“You can sit with Natasha,” Maria suggested. She felt the hand on her leg tighten, and she leaned down just enough to touch Natasha’s cheek with a kiss.

“Is that okay, bunny?” she asked carefully. “Can Steve sit with you and Clint and play?”

Natasha considered this for a minute, then pulled the pacifier out of her mouth. “Steve play,” she said solemnly, and Maria grinned.

“There you go,” she said to him.

He looked at Sam. Now there was hope in his eyes, a need for reassurance that it was, in fact, okay for him to let himself play.

“Go on, big man,” he said reassuringly. “It’s all right.”

Steve hesitated yet again before finally sinking to the floor, taking his bag off his back and beginning to open it.

“So,” Laura said quietly, moving to sit on Sam’s other side. “This is quite an interesting development.”

Steve carefully pulled out soldiers. Of course it was soldiers, the little green plastic ones you could buy at any dollar store. Then, a Nintendo DS, followed by two or three game cartridges. He placed them all on the floor like they were his most precious possessions.

Then Natasha roughly poked at the Nintendo.

“Whassat?”

“Natasha, be easy with Steve’s things,” Maria warned, and Natasha drew her hand back, sticking her thumb in her mouth.

“It’s all right,” Steve said quickly. “I dropped it in the kitchen this morning, it didn’t even scratch. Uncle Sam says I could probably drop it in the toilet and it’d still work.”

Maria and Laura both raised an eyebrow at Sam, who held up his hands in defense. “Interesting and _new_ ,” he emphasized.

“How new?”

“It’s for video games,” Clint said to Natasha. “Games boys play.”

“Only about a month,” Sam answered Maria. “So, _really_ new.”

“I have to say I’m surprised,” Laura said. “I mean I did think maybe Steve had some little boy tendencies, but I just thought after Peggy—“

“Steve didn’t bond with Peggy.”

Maria stared at Sam, who just shrugged and lowered his voice.

“He wanted to, he told me that much. And I think Peggy did too. But it never happened, and I mean, you know. The whole freezing and defrosting thing happened. And then one night he and I were snuggling and… I don’t know. It was just there.”

Laura smiled then, and Maria couldn’t help but mirror it. She felt like her relief must be palpable, because if there was anyone who deserved to find someone to love him forever, and care for him the way he needed, it was Steve. There was no way it had been easy for him, and he’d been convinced that his chance at bonding disappeared over seventy years ago. The idea that it hadn’t made Maria almost joyful.

“I like games,” Natasha said.

Steve studied her, then picked up his Nintendo. “You want to play with me?” he said. “I have a racing one…”

“She’s playing Lego with me,” Clint said stubbornly.

“Want to see race,” Natasha said back just as stubbornly.

“How old is he?” Maria asked, keeping an eye on her little girl as Steve pulled open the game console and turned it on, making sure both he and Natasha could see the screen.

“Around ten,” Sam said. “I’ve asked him if he wants to go smaller; he keeps saying no. Besides, it seems to fit him. He’s cute, but I don’t think the big man would make a good two-year-old.”

Steve glanced up and he and Sam shared a conspiratorial smile; Maria was pretty sure Steve moved easily in and out of his headspace like Natasha. Nat was getting more comfortable letting herself be little for longer stretches of time, especially when she was tired or upset. It was a little harder on Maria; taking care of someone in the headspace of a tiny girl could be hard work. But then Natasha would curl up in Maria’s arms after a particularly trying day, and, well. It was worth it. Plus, in the times that Natasha was big, she seemed to go out of her way to make sure _Maria_ was well cared for, which did nothing but make Maria fall ever more helplessly in love with her. Natasha wasn’t a flowers and breakfast in bed kind of girlfriend, but some days she’d have dinner waiting for Maria when she got home, or a hot bath drawn. Backrubs while they watched movies, or, well, plenty of orgasms to work out the stress that the day had brought Maria. Either way, during the time that Natasha was big, Maria could relax in _her_ arms and feel completely safe.

“What color car do you want, Natasha?” Steve asked, and Maria was surprised to see that Natasha had sat herself in between his legs, her back against his chest and Steve’s arms wrapped around her waist as he flicked through the game menu.

She was so focused on Natasha and Steve that she couldn’t see Clint glowering. Nor could she see Laura eyeing him carefully, as if she knew there wasn’t just a storm brewing _outside_.

“Pink car?”

“They don’t have a pink car in a _racing_ game.”

“Clint, be nice,” Laura said.

Natasha hugged her blanket to herself, a gesture that Maria recognized as her little girl getting a bit frustrated. Normally Natasha would come to her, but to Maria’s surprise, she didn’t this time. She did curl a little bit closer to Steve though, which seemed to also surprise the man – the _little boy_.

“I’m glad you came here,” Maria said to Sam. “I know Steve has been coming on his own, so he’s comfortable. And Laura, she’s fantastic. Natasha and I really like it here.”

Laura smiled gratefully at her. “Even in a world like ours it’s hard to find a place, sometimes,” she admitted. “Clint and I had trouble with it when we first found each other. It’s just good that we can be here for you guys.”

“You can have a red car, Natasha. Or maybe… maybe a blue one?”

“Blue!” Natasha said, and Steve nodded.

“Okay. There, I like that car, it’s neat.”

“Pretty car.”

“Yeah. Your doll is pretty too… what’s her name?”

Natasha picked up her doll with her other hand, showing it to Steve. “Yulia,” she said, then hugged it. “Mama got at toy store.”

“Yes, I did,” Maria said warmly.

She was finding that one of her favorite things to do was go shopping for Natasha. Some things were hit and miss; Natasha could be very opinionated even as a two-year-old about her likes and dislikes. But that was okay. Maria had been uncertain about the dolls, but Natasha seemed to love them. And that was all that mattered. Making her happy. Making her smile.

“It’s not that pretty,” Clint muttered, and Steve gaped at him while Natasha’s lower lip began to tremble.

“Clint, you say you’re sorry this instant, young man,” Laura said evenly.

He shrugged. “Sorry,” he said, sounding anything but.

Natasha was staring at Maria now, and Maria nodded gently at her. “Go ahead and play, bunny,” she encouraged, hoping it would distract Natasha from a bout of tears. She was tough, but sensitive, especially in her little state, Maria was beginning to realize. It was understandable, though; it seemed as if Natasha was much more comfortable expressing her emotions when she was smaller.

“Did I come at a bad time?” Sam asked, and Maria glanced at Laura.

“Of course not,” she said, and gave Sam’s arm a squeeze. “I think this weather might have us a little grumpy, that’s all. You know you and Steve are welcome here, anytime. Day or night, Sam. Clint and I are used to Maria barging in at all hours.”

“That happened _one time_ ,” Maria said, laughing. “And _you two_ called me.”

 “You help me race, okay?” Steve was asking the little girl in his arms. “Here.” He took her hand and helped her poke out one of her fingers. “You press this button when I tell you, and I’ll steer the car.”

“Mama, I help race!” Natasha crowed excitedly, and Maria clapped her hands.

“That’s my good girl. Thank you, Steve!”

“He likes you,” Sam said thoughtfully.

“Well, he works for me, I should hope so.”

Sam chuckled. “Nah. Little Steve likes you. You’re good at this.”

“Sometimes I don’t think so,” Maria said.

“Press it! Yeah! Press it, Natasha!”

Sometimes, she thought, she wasn’t very good at this at all. Sometimes she thought maybe Natasha would be better off with someone else. Someone who had done this before, who knew how to properly care for a little.

Sometimes, Maria wondered if Natasha thought the very same thing, even though Natasha had told her, when she was little, that she’d never want another mama.

Still. Maria wondered.

“We won!” Steve suddenly exclaimed. “Uncle Sam, Natasha and I won!”

“Hey, that’s great,” Sam said, reaching out to ruffle Steve’s hair. “You and Natasha make a great team.”

“Me and Natasha make a great team too,” Clint said.

Maria nodded. “You sure do.”

“Play Lego with me, Natasha.”

“No.” The little girl shook her head, and she jabbed at the Nintendo with her finger, almost knocking it out of Steve’s hand. “Want another race.”

“You don’t _need_ another race!” Clint suddenly shouted, and both Natasha and Maria jumped. “You don’t need a race and you don’t need Steve and I want you to _play with me right now!”_

He had thrust the toys out at Natasha, and she shied away, her face immediately going stony. That was worse than tears, Maria knew. That’s when big and little Natasha were battling each other inside her head. She turned around and hugged Maria’s legs; Maria reached down to pull her into her arms.

“Okay,” Laura said, standing up. “Clint Barton, march up those stairs. You have an appointment with the corner.”

“But—“

“You heard me, young man.”

He huffed and threw down the Lego, the brightly-colored bricks bouncing all over the carpet. He stomped all the way up the stairs, and Laura sighed.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized to Maria and Sam. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

“It’s fine,” Sam said with an understanding grin.

“We’re all right,” Maria said, hugging Natasha close to her and tucking the girl’s head onto her shoulder.

Steve was staring at his Nintendo, but not playing. He was quiet, and Sam reached out a hand to his shoulder. Steve flinched.

“What’s up, big man?”

Maria rocked Natasha in her arms. “It’s all right, my little bunny,” she soothed, kissing her head. She scooped up Natasha’s blanket from the floor and wrapped one of the girl’s arms around it, then found the pacifier and slipped it into Natasha’s mouth.

Natasha said nothing, just snaked one arm around Maria’s neck and clung to her.

“I-I did it wrong,” Steve said. “I did it all wrong.”

Maria stayed quiet, thinking that she ought to go somewhere else with Natasha, to give Sam and Steve their private time, but when she moved as if to get up, Sam caught her arm and shook his head. She sat back, settling for just gently patting Natasha’s back in time with her rocking.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, buddy,” Sam said carefully, running his hand through Steve’s blond hair. “It’ll be all right, you’ll see.”

“Mama?” It was so low Maria’s ears almost didn’t catch it.

She squeezed Natasha in her arms. “Hi there, sweet baby. What do you need?”

Natasha raised her head long enough to look at Maria, then laid it back onto her shoulder. “Nothin’.”

Maria didn’t buy that, but she didn’t push, either. Natasha wasn’t the type of person to _always_ volunteer how she was feeling, even when she was little. But Maria knew that in her own time, Natasha would tell her what she needed. Until then, Maria was just content to hold her.

Steve was still sat on the floor, his Nintendo held in his hands. Then he moved to climb up on the couch next to Sam, who wrapped his arm around Steve’s shoulders.

“I’m not a baby,” Steve said. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah, I know you’re not a baby,” Sam said, but didn’t move his arm. “Why don’t you show me your game?”

They were awkward, and Maria smiled, remembering how it was whenever she first bonded with Natasha. When they’d realized what their roles were meant to be. It hadn’t been easy. It would never be easy.

Natasha had perked up at the word “game,” and Maria kissed the top of her head.

It would be so worth it.

Steve showed Sam the game, with Natasha watching over their shoulders. Sam pretended not to know how to play, Maria could tell, just because it made Steve square himself a little proudly as he demonstrated how to weave the car in and out of the track, to avoid hitting the obstacles on the way to the finish line. They were so absorbed in watching that they barely noticed that Clint had come back downstairs until he was standing in front of them.

He was red-faced and teary-eyed, and Laura was smiling lovingly with one hand braced lightly against his neck, much like Sam had been with Steve earlier. Natasha’s thumb had found its way into her mouth as they stared up at him. Clint glanced up at Laura, who nodded.

He scuffed his shoe against the floor. “Sorry,” he finally said. “Sorry, Steve, sorry Natasha. I just wanted Nat to play with me. Not… forget me ‘cause Steve’s here. I’m sorry.”

He bit his lip, then looked at Sam and Maria. “Sorry, Sam. Sorry Auntie Maria.”

_Auntie Maria_. That was a new one, and even Natasha’s eyes widened upon hearing it.

“No harm done, kiddo,” Sam was saying, as easily as if he’d been in this role all his life.

Then again, they had. They all had, even without knowing it.

Maria reached up, with some difficulty since Natasha was clinging to her still, and patted Clint’s arm.

“I don’t think any of us were mad, Clint.”

“Mommy was,” Clint said, looking at her, and Laura laughed, giving him a hug.

“Do you like racing?” Steve said to Clint. “Or I got Mario if you like that better.”

“I really like Mario!” Clint said, and Steve grinned, slipping down off the couch to plunk onto the floor at Sam’s feet.

“Bet I can get a higher score than you.”

“Bet you can’t!”

The boys played for a little while; Sam and Maria chatted with Laura as Natasha drifted in and out of a nap on Maria’s lap. But gradually, with Steve being the first, the littles slipped out of their headspaces, and Clint headed off to the kitchen to make dinner. Natasha woke up with a start and moved off of Maria’s lap, smiling a little apologetically as she kissed her lips.

“You all right?” Maria queried, running her fingertips over Natasha’s cheek.

“Yeah.” Natasha turned her head to kiss Maria’s fingers. “I’m good, babe.”

She wasn’t, though. That much Maria could tell. Natasha was quiet, introspective, a mode that she usually got into when something was weighing on her mind and she needed to let it ruminate before she acted.

Which she did, a few minutes before dinner was ready.

They were standing in the kitchen, all of them.

“I think I’m going to go for a walk,” Natasha announced.

“Steve, Clint, want to go with me?”

Clint paused as he tasted the sauce to go with the fettucine alfredo he’d been making. “I need to finish this.”

Maria wanted to go; she’d never been on a walk with Natasha on the farm, and beyond that, she felt that same usual urge to protect her girlfriend, her little girl, as always. Even from Steve and Clint.

Natasha’s eyes narrowed, and Clint held up his hands.

No, Maria thought then, hiding a little smile, Natasha didn’t need her protection.

“A walk is good; I could use a walk. Cap?”

“Lead the way.”

Maria watched as the three of them walked out of the kitchen, onto the porch, then down the drive leading away from the farm. She glanced at Sam and Laura.

“Oh, boy.”

“Can’t be that bad,” Sam said. “Did he take his arrows with him? I mean if he didn’t take his arrows…”

“Excuse you,” Laura said, but she was grinning. “I’d be more worried about Natasha’s widow’s bite.”

“She’s got a point,” Maria agreed. “Even I worry about those, and I’m dating her.”

Fifteen minutes later they came back for dinner. The edge to Natasha was gone, and she joked easily with Sam over the food, and Steve and Clint started in on strategy for something-or-other until Laura put her foot down with the “No avenging at the table” rule. It seemed as if whatever tension the three littles had gone through a couple of hours earlier had drifted away, and Maria could tell that she wasn’t the only one glad about that.

Their “family” seemed to be whole again.

She retreated out to the porch after dinner, a cup of hot cocoa clasped in her hands, and Maria wasn’t surprised when she felt rather than heard Natasha slip next to her, leaning both against her and the railing.

“Thank you,” she said.

“For what?” Maria asked.

“For letting me talk to them on my own.”

Maria smiled a little. “You’re a grown woman, Nat. Much as I want to be, I don’t _have_ to be there for _everything_.”

“No, I guess not.” Natasha smiled back. “But you do want to know what we talked about.”

“I’m the director of SHIELD and your girlfriend. Me being protective comes with the territory.”

“I thought that was called being nosy.”

“That, too.”

Natasha laughed, then reached out and tugged one of Maria’s hands away from her mug of cocoa, kissing it and enfolding it in her own.

“I told them that I needed Clint when I was big. That Clint’s one of the few who took a chance on me and made me see that I could actually do some good in the world instead of the other way around. He’s the guy I look to when I can’t make sense of why we try when everything seems to go against us.”

Maria was quiet, only squeezing Natasha’s hand gently.

“And then I told them that I needed Steve when I was little. I don’t understand why, but he’s like a big overprotective brother and I don’t feel as dumb and weak being little when—“

“You’re not dumb and weak,” Maria protested, and Natasha removed her hand from Maria’s only to place a finger against Maria’s lips.

“Shh,” she said with a gentle smile. Maria nodded and kissed her fingertip.

“I never had a brother. I don’t even know what it’s like to have a brother. But I feel safer when Steve’s around and I need that. Doesn’t mean that I’m replacing Clint though.”

“I think he understands,” Maria said, turning back to look out over the yard.

“I hope so. They both seem to now. I guess we’ll see.”

“Yeah. We’ll see.”

She finished off her cocoa, setting the drink onto the railing.

“Maria?” Natasha reached up to cup Maria’s cheek, tilting her girlfriend’s face towards her.

“Maria, what is it?”

Maria shrugged. “Just wondering where I fit in, I guess.”

“You… what?”

“You had Clint and Laura before me. And Cap. Now you’ve got Clint and Laura _and_ Cap, when you’re little, and I guess I just wonder… you need Cap when you’re little, Clint when you’re big.”

There was a sudden rush of tears, and Maria cursed herself when her breath hitched a little.

“When do you need me?”

Natasha was silent for the longest time, and Maria shook her head.

“I should go back in; it’s getting cold—“

“You know, you are the director of SHIELD.” Natasha’s voice stopped her. She advanced to Maria, snaking an arm around her waist and pulling Maria to her.

“You are the director of SHIELD; you are a commander in the military. You are the smartest woman I know, and yet you are the biggest idiot I have ever met in my entire life.”

“… thanks?” Maria said, and Natasha shook her head, leaning up to brush Maria’s lips with a kiss.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you, too, I just—“

“You need to let me finish, because I can guarantee you I am never going to be this sappy again, Maria Hill.” Maria quieted, and Natasha squeezed her ever closer.

“When it’s cold at night and I wake up to you hugging me and pulling the blankets around us, that’s when I need you. When I’m tired and cranky and you make sure I have a bottle and a nap. When I’m on an op and you call in to make sure I’m eating. When I make you breakfast and you look at me like I’m the greatest cook in the world even though I just burned the toast, that’s when I need you.”

“In your defense, the toaster was on the fritz,” Maria interjected, and Natasha chuckled.

“Sure, we’ll go with that.”

She captured Maria’s mouth in a long, lingering kiss that left them both out of breath when they separated.

“I need you all the time,” Natasha said, a blush spreading over her face. She wasn’t used to talking like that, and Maria loved her all the more for it.

“When I’m little, when I’m big, doesn’t matter. All the time. Okay?”

Maria kissed her again. “More than okay,” she reassured, holding Natasha to her. “So much more than okay.”

She was still riding on cloud nine from Natasha’s words the next morning, when Maria walked into one of SHIELD’s conference rooms for a meeting.

“Avengers,” she greeted them, seeing Natasha, Clint, Tony, and Captain America seated at the table looking at her.

“We’ve had some information out of Cyprus, so you know what that means.”

She pressed a button on the remote she held in her hand, watching as a map illuminated itself on the wall opposite them.

“You move out tomorrow at oh-eight-hundred. Cap?”

“Yes, Aunt Maria?”

Maria stared at him, cocking her head at the amused grin Steve held on his boyish face.

“Uh.. you’re in charge, as usual. I’ve sent the details; strategize accordingly. Stark—“

“Want a juice box?”

That’s when she noticed that they had juice boxes. All of them. With straws. Clint sipped noisily from his, an expression on his face almost as if he was daring her to say something about it.

“No, I don’t want a juice box, Tony, thank you,” she managed to say. “We’re going to need you to look over some blueprints we found; our marks are developing a new tech and, well, you’re the resident expert.”

“Roger that, Auntie Commander.”

Auntie Commander, what in the…

Maria crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the smirking red head sat at the center of the table.

“Romanoff,” she said evenly, and Natasha looked at her innocently.

“Yes, mama?”

Maria threw up her hands. “This is your doing,” she exclaimed. “You put them all up to this!”

“Put us up to what, Auntie Maria?” Clint said, and Maria rolled her eyes as she slumped into a chair at the head of the table.

“You’re all ridiculous,” she muttered, resting her forehead against her palm as the “kids” surrounding her collapsed into laughter.

“Every single one of you little brats,” she accused, “Are ridiculous.”

“Yeah,” Natasha said, coming over to seat herself in Maria’s lap and hug her.

“But you love us.”

Maria sighed and looked up at them, at the beaming faces that stared at her, at the thumbs-up Steve was giving her.

Auntie Maria, she thought.

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

Maybe this was exactly where she fit in.


End file.
